Science communication is surprisingly diverse, a necessity in order to be effective. “Scicomm’ers” engage diverse audiences (e.g. students, stakeholders, other scientists) using diverse methods (e.g. journals, social media, town hall meetings), but communicators themselves come from a variety of backgrounds, including ages. Over the past year I’ve been inspired by one of the next generation’s…
Category: Fun Fish Fodder
More Minnow Misconceptions
Today’s facts may be tomorrow’s fallacies. And last Thursday, I got a serious reminder that science is a progressive continuum of new discoveries, and not a static body of facts. I study minnows, and last year I wrote a post to clear up some misconceptions about minnows. Things like how many small fishes are called…
run. fish. beer. Conservation through Recreation.
The premise of “The Rare Fish Rare Beer Project” is simple: we believe that the brain cell that drives a craft beer / spirits snob is the exact same brain cell that fuels a native fish advocate. We’re just connecting the dots in a super tasty way…
Book review: the Squidtoons comic
This is the coolest piece of #scicomm I’ve seen in a while: Squidtoons: Exploring Ocean Science with Comics by Garfield Kwan and Dana Song. Squidtoons has been ‘illustrating science with farts, burps, and giggles’ since 2013. Their website features entertaining comics packed with info on the amazing diversity of marine life, including a 2016 collaboration…
Jurassic World Fishes [Swimming Today]
Sharp teeth, bizarre shapes, gargantuan sizes, and a family tree that dates back over 100 million years…I’m not talking about dinosaurs, but ancient freshwater fishes! Twenty-five years ago today (June 11, 1993), Jurassic Park debuted in theaters. That date is fossilized in my mind because I recorded the trailer on VHS (wow, talk about ancient)…
The fish so nice, we named ’em twice
There are some weird fish that have the same name twice. We celebrate these oddities by turning them into fun art.
Fisheries Science “Unplugged”
If a sturgeon leaps from the water and no one’s there to tweet about it, does it make a splash? Earlier this week, fellow Nicholls State University biology professor Dr. Gary LaFleur Jr. sent me photos from his biomarkers class after they “went off the grid”. Students took pirogues (a type of canoe) to a…
Can fish get fat?
Without fail, this time of year makes many of us turn to New Year’s Resolutions of better eating habits, weight loss, and improved exercise regimes. We want to shed our post-holiday pounds but have you ever wondered if fish can get fat as well?
Invasivores Unite: Eat invasive species, save the world
Author: Patrick Cooney Artist: Henry Hershey (twitter: @spoonbill_hank; insta: @hanks_fish_art) Invasivore: A person who eats invasive species to reduce the ecological impact of invaders. Bad news Humans are to blame for the spread of aquatic invasive species across the globe. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) says, “Aquatic nuisance species are spread many ways…
How do fish handle cold water?
Summertime’s come and gone, and winter has arrived in the Northern Hemisphere. Inland waters across North America are cooling down, and many will soon be covered with ice. Winter can be hard on fishes, being poikilotherms that can’t regulate their own body temperature (with some exceptions). So just how do they make it through this…
The Peaceful Betta
Guest Blogger: Joelle Montes. What if I were to tell you that there is a fish out there that is equally as mesmerizing to the Siamese fighting fish but lives a more peaceful lifestyle?
Fish-inspired Halloween Costumes
On the day before Halloween, the Fisheries Blog brings you a boo-tiful list of fish, aquatic, and marine-life inspired costume ideas!
Birds vs Fish
These days, many scientists stand unified on several topics, including the defense of science itself. But it’s also good to know that scientists still have a sense of humor, and that some scientific debates can be entertaining, educational, and accessible, all at the same time. Enter “Birds vs Fish”, an ongoing feud largely played out…
A Breath of Fish Air
I recently migrated from Michigan to Louisiana to join the faculty at Nicholls State University as assistant professor. Moving from the Great Lakes to the bayou is inevitably laced with logistical concerns; in this case they included mobilizing myself, my wife, all our stuff, and…my fishes. That’s a two-day trip across ~1200 miles, but I…
To See a Coelacanth
This week’s post reflects on some time I am spending with Prosanta Chakrabarty. Prosanta, myself, and a research team are currently in rural, coastal Tanzania sampling Western Indian Ocean fish
The Fisheries Blog 